Weekend outting in the mountains

[JVA5th]

My mother and step dad took me out to the mountains for an early birthday things this weekend stayed up in Arnold a small town here in California. Got out on a man made lake that once was home to a mill town. Found a few things but nothing great a little bummed. Also went to another park but parks annoy me because with the AT Pro I have had a hard time knowing what midtones to dig and digging everything is not an option. But I found 2 toasted wheat pennies one shot through the middle, the heaviest sledge hammer head I've ever found a old timer watched me dig it and said it was most likely for the train rails to drive the steaks in the rails, so I guess semi interesting, dug two tiny lipsticks that were intact, some sort of old scissor, a old tap thing, and lots of little what's it and recyclables lead, copper, brass, aluminum. Found some what's it's too. I was happy to get out but couldn't help but to feel disappointed getting frustrated in my ability to do this hobby well despite tons of experience.

 

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[JVA5th]

 

[releventchair]

Looks like you're doin fine.
Not missing relics.
And diggin small stuff that's not always that easy to recover.

 

[JVA5th]

Looks like you're doin fine.
Not missing relics.
And diggin small stuff that's not always that easy to recover.

Starting to get flustered in said hobby. I've been doing this at least 15 years and never found anything all that spectacular. I do have a gold ring, and a gold sorority key, along with a few silver things but mostly all found this year and in the end of last year. Most my good finds where at home or at neighbors properties where most midtones aren't cans and pull tabs so I dig everything. But I still can't figure out how the heck people do parks. Numbers on the AP Pro don't seem to matter as they vary due to depth or position of an item. Parks and things like that are full of midtones so I never know which to dig and digging them all is really not an option due to the massive amount of them and how many are just cans and pull tabs along with beer tops. I won't lie got really frustrated today at a old park. I just can't figure out after all these years how to do it right.

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[billb]

It happens to me also driving to places an finding nothing..don’t give up please keep at it..
remember it’s like the lottery you got to be in it to win

 

[JVA5th]

It happens to me also driving to places an finding nothing..don’t give up please keep at it..
remember it’s like the lottery you got to be in it to win

Well been at it for many years and have gotten flustered over and over again but I'm extremely stubborn so I don't give up. I just have times when I get disappointed in myself and feel I'm not very efficient at this. I see so many people find awesome stuff and I rarely find anything decent. Mind you I understand this hobby you will find lots of junk.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Well been at it for many years and have gotten flustered over and over again but I'm extremely stubborn so I don't give up. I just have times when I get disappointed in myself and feel I'm not very efficient at this. I see so many people find awesome stuff and I rarely find anything decent. Mind you I understand this hobby you will find lots of junk.

A lot of people show the good stuff but forget to show the 2 or 3 bags of trash so don't get discouraged, Parks are difficult, ballfields are good because targets are far and few between, but normally when you get a target it will be good, the mid tone numbers I love are high 40's almost all the gold I have found is there, the 50's tend to be pull tabs, and nickels, 30's are foil and 60's are lead, where I go, but I hunt lakes and tot lots quite a bit. I also hunt rest areas and they are difficult also, for the real trashy areas and up close to playground equipment I got a sniper coil, the hockey puck sized coil. Now people will probably read what I am telling you about VDI #'s and say you have to dig it all or you will miss the gold and I agree but use the numbers to discriminate out some trash digging. I have an AT gold and I discriminate iron up to 34 and it eliminates a lot of trash signals.There is also a VDI chart for the pro and gold which shows the ranges of targets.

 

[JVA5th]

A lot of people show the good stuff but forget to show the 2 or 3 bags of trash so don't get discouraged, Parks are difficult, ballfields are good because targets are far and few between, but normally when you get a target it will be good, the mid tone numbers I love are high 40's almost all the gold I have found is there, the 50's tend to be pull tabs, and nickels, 30's are foil and 60's are lead, where I go, but I hunt lakes and tot lots quite a bit. I also hunt rest areas and they are difficult also, for the real trashy areas and up close to playground equipment I got a sniper coil, the hockey puck sized coil. Now people will probably read what I am telling you about VDI #'s and say you have to dig it all or you will miss the gold and I agree but use the numbers to discriminate out some trash digging. I have an AT gold and I discriminate iron up to 34 and it eliminates a lot of trash signals.There is also a VDI chart for the pro and gold which shows the ranges of targets.

Thank you for the info I appreciate all the detail you put into it. I always appreciate an experienced person's take on how to do things. I sometimes just get flustered and feel I'm doing something wrong or too be blunt too stupid to do it well. Been at this for many years and get discouraged seeing so many find much better things than I far more often. I have to keep pushing myself not to quit and don't want to end up quitting because it's been a huge escape from my generalized anxiety disorder that I struggle with horribly.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you. Hunting farm fields where there used to be houses. There are so many midtones it's impossible to sort them out. That and the near total lack of coins has me frustrated since coins are the whole reason I detect. I use an AT Pro as well and bought a nox 800 to see if that would help. The nox is worse in the farm fields. Very little to show for my time and expense. Probably operator error and lack of experience on my part but I keep trying. Gary

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Starting to get flustered in said hobby. I've been doing this at least 15 years and never found anything all that spectacular. I do have a gold ring, and a gold sorority key, along with a few silver things but mostly all found this year and in the end of last year. Most my good finds where at home or at neighbors properties where most midtones aren't cans and pull tabs so I dig everything. But I still can't figure out how the heck people do parks. Numbers on the AP Pro don't seem to matter as they vary due to depth or position of an item. Parks and things like that are full of midtones so I never know which to dig and digging them all is really not an option due to the massive amount of them and how many are just cans and pull tabs along with beer tops. I won't lie got really frustrated today at a old park. I just can't figure out after all these years how to do it right.

Great finds and backstory to your post, it looks to me that you're doing just fine John.
I used the AT Pro for almost 4 years from 2011 - 2014 and it'll make some good finds for you, you just need to detect in the All Metal Mode and learn the detectors language. I traded my AT Pro for the XP Deus in 2016 and have never looked back, I also stopped hunting parks in 2012, far too many pennies and trash to deal with. It was for this reason that I only hunt early homestead sites now... if I'm going to dig trash, I want it at least to be old trash.

This is an interesting piece,
Dave

 

[Centsless Detecting]

Don't give up, everbody has days like that. Don't forget if its not there you won't find it. Heck yesterday my buddy and I scored a mid 1800s yard permission. Oh I thought barbers indians and seateds were gonna come flying out of the ground.. Didnt happen. Buddy got a 56 rosie with his Pro. I had my nox which I love and have great succes with. Maybe 20 wheats between us. Got to the point where I was sick of wheats. Dug a ton a trash. Yeah some old relics but nothing to brag about. I was dissatisfied with my finds but I enjoyed hunting that house, it was beautiful. The old man that owned it (who neighbors said was a jerk) was nice and had a sense of humor. Only thing he kept was a set of keys my buddy found. lol he was going to test them out. Somtimes a hunt isn't all about the finds but just being able to hunt. I still go to my local park. Got a small coil for my nox and started hitting those really trashy areas. Figuerd no one in their right mind would detect a spot with 10 pulltabs per swing. Low and slow is key and I've found silver in all that junk. I hope your next hunt is better. Btw that Wisston Phila piece is an inlay to an old saw handle. Pretty neat.

 

[releventchair]

Starting to get flustered in said hobby. I've been doing this at least 15 years and never found anything all that spectacular. I do have a gold ring, and a gold sorority key, along with a few silver things but mostly all found this year and in the end of last year. Most my good finds where at home or at neighbors properties where most midtones aren't cans and pull tabs so I dig everything. But I still can't figure out how the heck people do parks. Numbers on the AP Pro don't seem to matter as they vary due to depth or position of an item. Parks and things like that are full of midtones so I never know which to dig and digging them all is really not an option due to the massive amount of them and how many are just cans and pull tabs along with beer tops. I won't lie got really frustrated today at a old park. I just can't figure out after all these years how to do it right.

Measuring your success by others success is going to frustrate you.

Heck , I wasintroduced to detecting in the late sixties early seventies , and no gold ring toshow for it.
By your success , I'm a failure , right?
Yes, I've dug some pulltabs...L.o.l...

Parks vary in how much they have been hunted. And if fill has been added ect..
One I have not hunted yet , a store owner had a gallon jug of Indian head cents he dug across the road at the park.
Other parks I've hunted have been pounded since detectors were popular.
One silver per 400 coin recoveries is doing good. But what if I read of someone finding a few silvers without the bag of trash and clad?

Measure by your own standards in detecting.
The site is a huge part of success.
When you're walking where detectorists have for 50 years , it's a very different game than an unhunted site.

My (yours of course can and will vary) silvers out of heavily hunted grounds have been mixed with other signals. Making what you might read not a silver.
Rather a peep in with multiple other junk.
Note: the only reason I recovered some of those silvers is that other detectorists (and some much better detectorists than I ) passed up the mixed signals.

Badly trashed park near me I clean out a small area of ground each visit. Then go cherry pick. No , I don't recommend cherry picking very often if items other than coins interest someone. . But after lots of recoveries cleaning the small area of that nearby park , I've had enough digging....

Guys come through with much better detectors than mine. And few stop to recover anything. It's pretty constant signals . More so if moving very fast.
But I've learned the park. That helps.
Is it a place to expect anything "good" or "great"? Not really. But it gets me in sync with the detector pretty good for hunting elsewhere...
And is an easy default close to home.

 

[JVA5th]

Thanks for the comments everyone I guess I just need to be more patient. Sometimes I just get flustered and think I'm just really bad at the hobby I often don't have the best confidence in myself, been also frustrated in my ability to get permissions. Lots of old homes here in the country where I live I can walk to but everytime I end up going to one to ask I chicken out most the times and walk past. Anxiety sucks I'll be 30 in a few days and I'm worried about knocking on a freaking door generalized anxiety disorder is ridiculous. I'm trying to not let myself get too worked up.

 

[JVA5th]

Great finds and backstory to your post, it looks to me that you're doing just fine John. [emoji106]
I used the AT Pro for almost 4 years from 2011 - 2014 and it'll make some good finds for you, you just need to detect in the All Metal Mode and learn the detectors language. I traded my AT Pro for the XP Deus in 2016 and have never looked back, I also stopped hunting parks in 2012, far too many pennies and trash to deal with. It was for this reason that I only hunt early homestead sites now... if I'm going to dig trash, I want it at least to be old trash.

This is an interesting piece,
Dave

Yeah I have no idea what it is. It's threaded on the bottom and was once attached to something it isn't a button but like something that went to some sort of object. I'd guess maybe a scale off what's on it but maybe that's just a company logo.

 

[oldmxrat]

I would be plenty happy with those finds, that's a very interesting array of items. I think the holed penny was punched with a square nail and used as a washer, very cool. We just don't have as many old coins in the ground out west as they do in the east so not as likely to find them. To me it's a matter of peaceful time outdoors, tuning out the world and the surprise of what the ground holds. Hang in there brother!

 

[oldmxrat]

Oh, and permissions, I'm with you! I'm a very non-confrontational person and it is EXTREMELY difficult to make myself knock on those doors.

 

[JVA5th]

I would be plenty happy with those finds, that's a very interesting array of items. I think the holed penny was punched with a square nail and used as a washer, very cool. We just don't have as many old coins in the ground out west as they do in the east so not as likely to find them. To me it's a matter of peaceful time outdoors, tuning out the world and the surprise of what the ground holds. Hang in there brother!

Good way to look at it was beautiful up there and the weather was great. My mind can get stuck in the negative a problem I've always had unfortunately. Sometimes I have to sit back breathe and think things through I suppose

 

[JVA5th]

Oh, and permissions, I'm with you! I'm a very non-confrontational person and it is EXTREMELY difficult to make myself knock on those doors.

I often can't even comprehend my own anxiousness. The worst that could happen is they say no. I tell myself that get close to the house then my mind starts freaking out and I chicken out. I almost feel terror in said moment. I highly dislike my anxiety disorder not something I'd wish on anyone.

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

cool finds anyway!